Journal box sealing device



March 11, 1969 R. P PAPENGUTH JOURNAL BOX SEALING DEVICE Filed Jan. 27,1967 INVENTOR.

F/QWKD ff Fifi/V6077? United States Patent Ofiice 3,432,173 PatentedMar. 11 1969 3,432,173 JOURNAL BOX SEALING DEVICE Richard P. Papenguth,Manhattan Beach, Calif., assignor to Parker-Hannifin Corporation,Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Jan. 27, 1967, Ser. No.612,214 US. Cl. 277--29 11 Claims Int. Cl. F163 15/32, 15/10 ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE A railway car journal box axle and dust sealing devicethat has vent passages to permit air to flow in and out of the box whilemaintaining the dust seal and the axle seal.

Background of the invention In railroad cars the ends of the axles forthe wheels are journaled within boxes that contain a liquid lubricant.The journal boxes are only partially filled with lubricant and thuscontain air as well as liquid lubricant. To prevent loss of lubricantfrom the wheel side of the boxes a sealing device is inserted within awell formed in the box and makes sealing contact with the shaft and thewalls of the well. It is also common practice to have the sealing devicealso seal the top of the well against the entrance of dust and otherforeign matter.

The reciprocatory movement of the axle within the journal boxalternately increases and decreases the space Within the box that isoccupied by air. When the box is tightly sealed this results inalternate increase and decrease in the pressure of the air which in turnmakes it diflicult to maintain a seal about the axle for retaining thelubricant. The present invention obviates this diflii culty by ventingthe journal box to atmosphere in a particular manner.

A prior journal seal device shown in US. Patent 2,668,- 067 disclosespassages for venting journal boxes but does not provide an effectivedust seal nor do the vent passages provide enough flow capacity foreffective functoning.

Summary of the invention A railway car journal box sealing device thathas one portion for sealing the top of the journal box well againstentrance of dust and foreign matter and that has another portion forsealing between the well and car axle to prevent loss of lubricant, thedevice providing passages of sufiicient flow capacity for effectivelyventing the interior of the box to atmosphere while still providing anefiiective seal against leakage of lubricant and entrance of dust andforeign matter.

Brief description of the drawing FIG. 1 is a vertical section throughthe journal box showing the sealing device in use.

FIG. 2 is an end view of the wheel side of the sealing device with thejournal box sectioned on line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

Description of the preferred embodiment Journal box has a chamber 11containing a bearing 12 against which car axle 13 is journaled.

The wheel side of the box 10 has a well 15 formed by opposed spaced endwalls 16, 17, the bottom and the sides of the well being closed and thewell having an upper open end 18. Walls 16, 17 have annular openings 21,22 therethrough through which axle 13 extends.

Mounted in well 15 is a sealing device 24 comprising a rigid member 25of wood, plastic or other relatively inflexible material to which isbonded another member 26 of elastic rubber-like material. The elasticmember 26 has an annular lip portion 27 that initially extends in aradial direction, as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 1, but which wheninstalled assumes a cylindrical shape as indicated by the solid lines.The lip maintains sealing contact with axle 13 in all movements of thelatter to prevent the liquid lubricant, with which chamebr 11 ispartially filled, from leaking out of the chamber along the axle.

The resilient portion 26 of the sealing device 24 has an annular rib 28on one side in sealing contact with wall 16 and another annular rib 29on its other side in sealing contact with wall 17. Radially spaced fromribs 28, 29 is another rib 31 that encircles the upper end 32 of sealingdevice 24 and which makes sealing contact with walls 16 and 17 and theside walls 19, 20 of the well for the purpose of excluding dust andother foreign matter from the well. Rib 31, being spaced from ribs 28and 29 forms channels 33 and 34 therebetween that are connected to eachother by way of clearances 35, 36 between the sealing device and wellside walls 19, 20.

The upper portion of rib 28 is cut away to provide a relatively wideslot or passage 40 therethrough communieating chamber 11 with channel33. The upper portion of rib 29 has a pair of slots 42 ofiset from slot40 and communicating channel 34 to atmosphere through opening 22. Slot40 is substantially equal in length to the sum of the lengths of slots42.

Operation space within chamber 11 increases and as the axle moves towardits outer position such volume decreases.

If there is no vent passage for chamber 11 the pressure of the aircontained therein tends to increase and decrease as much as .55 p.s.i.with such changes in volume. This results not only in difiiculty inmaintaining effective sealing contact between lip 27 and the axle butalso results in excessive flexing of sealing lip 27 and consequentrelatively short life. Thus, it has been found desirable to minimizeincreases and decreases of air pressure within the journal box. This maybe accomplished by having slot 40 of substantially no less than 4"chordal length and of about .080" depth when the device is installed.Slots 42 have substantially the same depth and total chordal length asslot 40. Slots 40, 42 are of a size to provide sufiicient flow of air toaccommodate all conditions of axial reciprocation and to thereby avoidthe dilficulties caused by the aforementioned increases and decreases inair pressure.

As the axle moves outwardly, air within the journal box passes throughopening 21 and slot 40 into channel 33 and. through clearances 35, 36 tochannel 34 and then through slots 42 and opening 22. to atmosphere. Rib31 maintains continuous sealing contact about the well to prevent airfrom splashing out and to elfectively prevent dust or dirt from fallingin. Furthermore, because the air must pass upwardly through slot 40 thenhorizontally through clearances 35, 36 and then downwardly through slots42 a labyrinth type passage is provided that prevents loss of the liquidlubricant from chamber 11 by splashing action.

I claim:

1. In the combination of a journal box and a sealing device thereforwherein the box includes a well having an open top and opposed first andsecond side walls with respective first and second openings therethroughfor receiving an axle, and the device has a body with an annular portionfor sealingly engaging the axle, the improvement comprising first meanssurrounding the first opening and projecting from one side of the bodyinto sealing contact with the first side wall, second means projectingfrom the body on the second side thereof into contact with said secondside wall, third means projecting from said body completely around thetop end thereof and sealingly engaging said Well for closing the topopening thereof, said third means being spaced from the first and secondmeans so as to provide a channel therebetween that extends completelyaround said body, a slot through the first means connecting the firstopening and the channel, and a slot through the second means connectingthe channel with the second opening.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which the first means comprises anarrow rib of elastomeric material.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which said first and second means areof deformable elastomeric material.

4. The combination of claim 1 in which all of said means are narrow ribsof deformable elastomeric material.

5. The combination of claim 1 in which the first means has another slotconnecting the first opening with the channel, and the slots in thefirst means are angularly displaced from the slot in the second means.

6. The combination of claim 5 in which the total area of opening throughthe slots in the first means is substantially equal to the area ofopening in the slot in the second means.

7. The combination of claim 1 in which the slots are of substantially noless than .080" in depth and 4" in length.

8. The combination of claim 1 in which the third means is within thewell and engages the surrounding walls thereof.

9. In a sealing device for a journal box wherein the device has asubstantially U-shaped body with an opening therethrough and with asealing portion surrounding the opening and with first and second ribs,one on each side of the body spaced from and substantially surroundingthe sealing portion, the improvement of a third rib projecting from thebody at the top thereof and completely surrounding the body, the thirdrib being spaced from the first and second ribs to provide a channeltherebetween that extends completely around the body, and slot meansthrough the first and second ribs communicating with said channel.

10. The device of claim 9 in which the slot means in the first rib areangularly offset from the slot means in the second rib.

11. The device of claim 9 in which the slot means in one of the ribs islocated nearer to the upper end of the U-shaped body than the slot meansin the other rib.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,487,669 1l/l949 Pattullo et al277-237 X 2,668,067 2/1954 Fitzsimrnons 277-l73 2,958,551 1l/1960 Rogers277--237 3,010,741 1l/l96l Hoyer 277l32 X 3,353,831 ll/l967 Sweger277-132 X SAMUEL ROTHBERG, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 277-132.

